Category: Alternative Football

If the new United States Football League gets off the ground, fans of the old USFL might get to move their retro apparel back to the “active” pile.

I have several Birmingham Stallions tee shirts, so if they come galloping back to Legion Field (or the new Protective Stadium) next spring, I’ll be ready to suit up without having to buy new stuff.

But here’s a bit of trivia for you … back in 2015 the Denver Gold, Los Angeles Express, Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars and Tampa Bay Bandits – brands from the original USFL – were supposed to take the field again.

Instead of reviving America’s gridiron spring fling of 1983-85, though, they would be competing in something called the A-11 Football League.

Founded in 2013 and ultimately abandoned in 2014, the A11FL hoped to bring familiar USFL names to a wide-open league – one in which all 11 players on offense (hence the name) could be eligible receivers.

In its fan guide released on April 16, 2013, the primary game plan was unveiled:

The A11FL makes ONE rule change to the game of football, allowing for all eleven offensive players on the field to wear eligible jersey numbers. This rule change creates a game where every athlete can be interchangeable within any formation depending on the strategy of each play. The offense still needs to have 7 men on the line of scrimmage and 5 of those 7 players will be considered “restricted linemen” if they are not aligned on the end of the line of scrimmage – the same formation eligibility requirement mandated at every level of football.

The A-11 offense is the brainchild of Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries, who popularized the attack at Piedmont High School in California. The scheme basically turned the kicking formation into a scrimmage play, but the National Federation of State High School Associations closed the loophole after two seasons.

Bryan was the executive vice president of league development for the A11FL and wanted to show that the free-for-all style could not only go national, but go pro.

“As a football coach for 25 years, I’ve seen a lot of things come and go, which I refer to as fads,” Bryan told the San Francisco Examiner for a February, 2014 story. “We started having success in the A-11 offense, and the phones never stopped ringing. Coaches from all over wanted to know about this offense.”

In the same article, A11FL commissioner Scott McKibben said the new league was the right product at the right time. He expected attendance to average more than 30,000 per game with fans paying $30 per ticket.

“This country thirsts for more football and the live action sports content value has never, ever been higher,” McKibben said. “We believe football played in the spring, at the highest level, in the greatest markets, with the greatest players, will be successful.”

ESPN signed on to televise a pair of “showcase games” for the spring of 2014, and by 2015 eight inaugural franchises would play a 14-week regular season followed by three weeks of playoffs. Players were to be selected via a late winter territorial draft.

Alas, the wheels came off quickly.

A couple of months after the Examiner piece ran, the scheduled showcase games were canceled and it was revealed that the L.A. Express (and any other California-based teams) would not be part of the league at the outset due to workers’ compensation issues in that state.

By July, 2014, A11FL officials announced that the league was sticking with the A11 offense but dropping its original name. And when February, 2015, rolled around, organizers had abandoned the idea altogether in favor of forming a different league based on more traditional rules.

That league – whatever it was supposed to be – never materialized.

With or without the USFL nostalgia trip, I would’ve been intrigued by an A-11 pro league. It would be the ultimate representation of a spread offense, and every play would be tricky, if not a trick play.

As I’ve said before, if you can’t be as good as the NFL talent-wise, try to be better than the NFL gimmick-wise. And the A-11 Football League would’ve been about as gimmicky as it gets.

The last time I watched an August 5 CFL game from the comfort of my Birmingham home was back in 1995 when I tuned into ESPN2 and saw the Shreveport Pirates dismantle the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 65-17.

The next time I watch an August 5 CFL game from the comfort of my Birmingham home will be 26 years later when the Blue Bombers once again grace my TV screen. And in the annals of my CFL fandom – which is now in its sixth decade – this will surely be a date to remember.

After having the 2020 season wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic and faced with the prospect of seeing the Canadian Football League drown in the maelstrom of a second consecutive lost work year, the CFL is back. August 5 kicks off a 14-game regular season and in a happy coincidence my favorite team – the Hamilton Tiger-Cats – will provide the opposition for the reigning Grey Cup champions.

The Canadian game is my preferred brand of tackle football, and I truly couldn’t be more excited to have it back on the field.

“To say this is a happy day for the CFL is a monumental understatement,” commissioner Randy Ambrosie said during a video conference on Monday. “Obviously we’ve all been waiting for this for a very long time. It’s taken an awful lot of hard work to get here. Perhaps it’s best to say being disappointed in 2020 just doubled and redoubled and redoubled again our resolve to get back on the field in 2021.”

Of course as pleased as we armchair quarterback types are, it’s nothing compared to how the players must be feeling. The CFL is a brief stopover for some, yet for many more it’s their career.

And while working remotely is highly desirable in some professions, professional football is not one of them.

“CFLPA members are looking forward to getting back to the game as well as the communities they proudly represent,” the Canadian Football League Players Association said in a statement. “We will continue to closely monitor decisions made by the various levels of government to understand how we can meet pandemic safety protocols and get players back to work.”

In CFL parlance, I’m what you’d call an “import.” Neither Canadian by birth nor naturalization, I still claim membership in the league’s family of fans. Teams have ratio rules that limit the number of international players, but there’s no such restriction on who cheers or where we cheer from. And while on game day foes of the Ti-Cats are my “enemies,” I like to think supporters of any of the nine franchises are my friends.

It’s a bond I can’t explain, other than to say many of us – most of us, I hope – want the entire league to succeed. I like nothing more than seeing Hamilton defeat Toronto, but that doesn’t mean I somehow want the Argonauts to list.

If it were up to me, every single CFL stadium would be packed to the rafters for every game. It’s one of those “rising tide lifts all boats” kind of deals.

I can honestly say of all the leagues that were locked down, shut down or limited during the height of the pandemic, it was the absence of the CFL that I felt the most. And when word came Monday that it was less than two months away from returning, I felt real joy.

“We’re so excited to kick off this season,” Ambrosie said. “Excited for our players, our coaches, our partners and especially our fans, who have stuck with us and stood by us. It’s going to be a great season leading to a Grey Cup that promises to be an incredibly special moment in history for our game, our league and our country.”

I’m anxiously counting down the days to August 5. And when the Tiger-Cats and Blue Bombers storm onto IG Field at 7:30 p.m. CDT, it’ll be like seeing old friends again. Man, have I ever missed them.

Quick … what happened on June 12, 1974?

A lot of things, I imagine.

The world population was 4,016,608,813 at the time, so a bunch of people were bound to be up to something.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl and Instagram @scottscribe60

But as far as I’m concerned it’s one of the most important days in sports rulebook history, because this was the day the 7-point touchdown and action point were introduced.

Yep, World Football League commissioner Gary Davidson announced that his new league would be too cool for old school when it kicked off in July.

Touchdowns had an extra point, and that extra point was already included.

And the extra point kick was kicked to the curb, replaced by an “action point” conversion that would be executed via run or pass from the two and half yard line,“

There has been no suspense in football with the traditional point after touchdown being successful 99 percent of the time,” Davidson told the Associated Press. “Our new action point will provide a new and exciting element to the game.”

Not everyone was on board with it, though, including Southern California Sun coach Tom Fears.

“I don’t like it,” Fears told the Los Angeles Times. “Too much rides on that one play. You can go the length of the field to score in a close game and then, because they stop you on a two-and-a-half-yard play, you can lose a championship.

“The only reason we’ve got it is because the owners want to make the crowd happy.”

Speaking as a member of “the crowd” it certainly made me happy, which is rather important when you’re trying to get fans interested in a new product.

Over the last 47 years, various football leagues have come and gone, many with creative gimmicks. Yet none resonated with me like the kickless conversion after a 7-point TD.

The reasoning behind the scoring change for touchdowns was that the league rules committee decided a major score should exceed the total of two field goals. And I agreed with this. Not sure why, but I did and still do.

And the action point was a great change.

Despite the fact I was the placekicker for the L.M. Smith School 110-pound football team, PATs didn’t thrill me. Maybe it was because we never kicked them – we always just went for two. But beyond that, they really were mostly automatic at the college and pro level, and had an excitement level of zero.

In the WFL, a conversions would be anything but a sure thing. It was a solo point that took some work.

Over the next several days the WFL rolled out a bunch of great rules, such as no fair catches on punts, kickoffs from the 30, and a back allowed in motion before the snap.

But when I went to Legion Field on opening night (July 10), I was all about the 7-point TD and action point.

And I got to see them.

The Birmingham Americans defeated Southern California, 11-7, converting their lone action point of the night.

Jump to the end of the season and Birmingham’s 22-21 World Bowl victory over the Florida Blazers on December 5. The teams were a combined one-for-six on action points with an option sweep by quarterback Matthew Reed following the Ams’ second TD providing the margin of victory.

As a card-carrying goob (the card is in my wallet somewhere), I relish upending sports status quos. And while there was nothing overly outrageous about these changes, they were dramatic and damn near perfect.

The one scoring change I’d like to see more than any is the defense being awarded a point for a fumble recovery or interception. If that happened, it would be my favorite rule tweak in gridiron history.

Until then, the 7-point TD and action point hold the honor.

Long may they live – at least in my memories.